Willa chewed on her lower lip for a moment before she answered. “I visited an orchard in Canada, and they were using the V-trellis system. When they told me how many bins they were getting two years after planting, I knew we had to try it.”
“Took her four months to convince my father to let her give it a go. He gave her the acres and told her they were hers to do what she wanted.”
I looked from Lacy to Willa and felt my chest swell with pride. Willa had always been a go-getter and one to chase after the things she wanted. It was one of the things that had always attracted me to her. “Good for you, Willa. You knew you had a good idea, and you fought for it.”
Willa’s cheeks turned pink.
Lacy chuckled. “Well, in case you don’t remember, Aiden, when Willa sets her mind on something, she goes for it.”
I smiled as Willa turned and faced her sister. “Did you want to take the side-by-side with us?” she asked, referring to the utility vehicle that Willa had driven out here.
Laughing, I said, “And she still doesn’t like people giving her compliments.”
Willa glanced back over her shoulder, and when she flashed me a grin, I felt my chest tighten and a strange sensation wash over me. It was more than longing, more than the desire I had always felt for Willa. It was…more. And that scared the living shit out of me today, just as much as it did nine years ago.
Lacy’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. “Yes, we’ll ride over there with you if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” Willa said as we all made our way over and climbed into the utility vehicle.
I glanced back to see Lilly smiling at me. “Are you in school, Lilly?”
She nodded.
“Tell him what grade you’re in,” Lacy prompted.
“Pwe-K,” Lilly replied with a giggle before she buried her face in her mother’s side.
Willa laughed. “You really like kids, don’t you?”
“I do. Their innocence has a way of washing away all the bad things I’ve seen over the years.”
She turned and looked at me, a soft smile on her face. “I can’t imagine.”
I slowly shook my head. “I wouldn’t want you to even try.”
We drove the rest of the way in silence, until Willa pulled up to the section of the orchard that had the V-trellis system. Lilly squealed in the backseat, and I could feel her excitement as Willa came to a stop and Lacy opened the door. The little girl ran out and made a beeline for the trees. They had grown up and over each other, forming a canopy over the rows.
“You should see it when they bloom. It looks like a picture from a fairy book,” Willa said as she grinned and watched her niece scream in delight. “That’s why Lilly calls them princess apples.”
My gaze drifted up to see a windmill not far off in the distance. As I stared at the rotating blades, I was suddenly assaulted with a memory.
“Aiden! Chris! Run!” Mitch shouted from the edge of the helicopter, his hand outstretched. “Run!”
Gunshots fired around us as I urged Chris to keep up. I could see his arm, and I knew instantly it was broken.
“Chris, go!” I yelled as I came to a stop and helped Mitch pull Chris into the helicopter, then jumped in right before it lifted off. Turning, I fired my own weapon as we flew off.
Once we were safely away, I leaned back and tried to get my breathing under control as my heart pounded in my chest. The sound of the helicopter blades somehow managed to drown out my own heartbeat, which was thrumming in my ears.
“Where’s the blood coming from?” I heard Mitch yell.
I opened my eyes and found our senior chief looking at me. “Are you bleeding, O’Hara?”
After quickly doing a search, I shook my head. “No, sir.”
“Chris! Chris, no!”
The yelling came from Mitch, who was holding his hand over Chris’s throat. He lifted his head, and our eyes met.
Chris’s hand came up, and I grabbed it. He tried to talk, but I shook my head. “Don’t talk, Chris. It’s going to be okay.”
He gasped for air and pushed something into Mitch’s hand as he tried to speak again. Mitch opened his hand, and we both saw it was a letter to his girlfriend that he always kept tucked into his gear. My gaze snapped back to Chris.
“You’re not going to need Mitch to give that to her,” I shouted over the noise in the helicopter. “You’re going to be okay.”
He coughed up blood and reached for my hand. I lifted my gaze to Mitch who looked as stricken as I felt.
I focused back on Chris and smiled. We went through BUD/S together and, years later, ended up on the same Tier 1 team. He’d spent hours talking about the plans he had with his girlfriend, Sarah. He was going to ask her to marry him that Christmas. He was finally ready for that next part of his life.